A Nakiganda, A Mcleod*, A Bua,
R Phipps*, M Upton* and
N Taylor*

Abstract

Dairying is one of the ways farmers earn a living. A study was
carried out in Masaka district of Uganda. The major objective was
to understand farmers' constraints, objectives and achievements in
the dairy production. The study was conducted in two phases, the
informal cross-sectional survey and a longitudinal study. A
participatory method was used.

Farmers had several objectives, which included, paying school
fees, daily home maintenance, buying cow requirements (enterprise
self sufficiency), increasing soil fertility, home milk consumption
and increasing herd value in order of importance. Generally,
farmers achieved the following objectives: improving soil fertility
by manure, followed by buying cow requirements and home milk
consumption. However the farmers did not fully achieve their most
important objective of paying school fees for the children. The
major constraining factors to dairy production were prolonged
drought, which lead to feed scarcity and the poor milk market.

Key words: Achievement, constraint, dairy, objective, smallholder

Introduction

Dairying is one of the ways farmers earn a
living. It was introduced by NGOs and the Uganda government to
smallholder farmers. The NGOs involved in this work included: Send
a cow, Masaka Diocese Development Organization (MADDO), 'World
Vision' and Heifer Project International West Buganda. The
introduction of a cow to the smallholder's farm was expected to
provide additional benefits such as a daily income from milk sales,
milk for home consumption and improved soil fertility through
manure application. However, farmers encounter a lot of problems
in dairying. Brown (1979) revealed that farmers on transition to
commercial farming have many objectives that contribute to
maximization of family satisfaction. Satisfaction is increased by
the benefits of farm output and decreased by the cost of
sacrificing food, leisure, and money or taking risks. Upton (1987)
reports that the objective of profit maximization is modified by
other aspects such as getting adequate cash income in commercial
farming and adequate diet in subsistence farming. He further
reveals that without these, neither the business nor the family
could survive to aspire to any other objectives.
Akatugba-Ogisi's studies (1994) in the Bendel states in
Nigeria identified farmers' objectives as to: provide food for
family from own farms, provide for education of own children,
strive to repay debts and avoid more, make the most profit from
farming, employ family members on own farms and arrange work so as
to have more hours off farm work. Upton (1996) revealed that a
farmer can have difficulty to achieve his goals and hence strives
to minimize the extent of under achievement of the goals. However
all farmer's goals are not equally important to him so prioritising
them indicates the optimum choice of a particular farmer. This
study was designed to understand farmers' constraints, objective
and achievements in the dairy production.

Study objectives

To establish why farmers keep dairy cattle.

To identify farmers constraints in the dairy production.

To establish farmers' achievements in dairy production.

Methodology

The study was carried out in Masaka district which is located
between 00 15'and 00 43' below the equator
and between 310 and 320 East longitude. The
study was carried out in two phases. These were the informal
cross-section survey (three months) and the longitudinal study (one
year). A sample of 60 farmers was selected randomly from
zero-grazing farmers' lists from four sub counties. Participatory
method was used and the following research tools were used to
collect the data: focus group discussion, individual
semi-structured interviews (Waters-Bayer and Bayers 1994),
observations, farmer data recording, participatory budgeting
(Galpin et al 2000), objective matrix, ranking and scoring and
resource flow maps.

Results and discussion

Farmers' objectives

Smallholder dairy farmers had several objectives, which, they
wanted to achieve, by having a dairy cow. These included getting
milk for home consumption, getting money for maintaining their
homes; paying school fees; buying cow requirements (dairy
enterprise self sufficiency), medical treatment for the family,
improving soil fertility by manure and cow urine and increasing
herd value (increasing cattle numbers in the herd).

Farmers ranked their dairy enterprise objectives (Table 1).
Paying children's school fees was ranked number one, followed by
daily home maintenance, buying cow requirements (enterprise self
sufficiency) and increasing soil fertility in order of importance.
Increasing herd value was the least ranked objective. The
achievement of all these objectives depends upon the income or 'net
margin' earned from the dairy enterprise.

Table 1.Farmers’ dairy enterprise
objectives over all ranks

Farmer objective

Farmers percentage

Number of ranks

Over all rank

Number of farmers

Rank1

Rank2

Rank3

Rank4

Rank5

Rank6

Weighted total

Weighted average

School fees

32.6

(196)

23.9

(120)

6.5

(26)

15.2

(46)

19.6

(39)

2.2

(2)

428

71

6

1

46

Daily home maintenance

15.2

(76)

43.5

(174)

6.5

(20)

13.0

(26)

21.7

(22)

NA

317

63

5

2

46

Cow requirements

20.0

(120)

17.8

(89)

8.9

(36)

26.7

(80)

22.2

(44)

4.4

(4)

374

62

6

3

45

Increasing soil fertility

11.6

(70)

2.3

(12)

23.3

(93)

27.9

(84)

11.6

(23)

23.3

(23)

305

51

6

4

43

Home milk consumption

0.0

(0)

0.0

(0)

44.7

(179)

15.8

(47)

7.9

(16)

31.6

(32)

274

46

6

5

38

Increasing herd value

13.3

(80)

3.3

(17)

13.3

(53)

6.7

(20)

13.3

(27)

50.0

(50)

246

41

6

6

30

NA represent not applicable

( ) represents weighted
percentage farmers per rank

Rank1: Most important
objective followed by ranks 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6

Calculation of weighted average farmer percentage is done, first
of all by multiplying the farmers' percentages by used ranks in the
reverse order, then adding all products to produce a weighted total
percentage, this is divided by the number of ranks used. For
example for school fees

Farmers' achievements in the dairy
production

Farmers were asked to what extent they managed to achieve each
of their objectives during the entire period they were engaged in
keeping dairy cattle by scoring out of 10. A score of 10 meant
that the farmer got all he wanted in that objective and lower
scores meant that he got less than he expected in that objective.
Zero score meant that a farmer failed completely to achieve that
objective.

Table 2. Percentages of farmers at
different levels of achievement of stated objectives

Level of
achievement

Home milk
consumption

Buy cow
requirements

School
fees

Increasing herd value

Home
maintenance

Human
treatment

Manure
soil fertility

Urine
soil fertility

0 – 1
(Low)

0

0

12

17

4

21

0

6

2 – 5
(Medium)

16

15

37

36

31

21

13

10

6 – 10
(High)

84

85

51

48

65

58

87

84

The level of achievement 10
means a farmer achieved what he wanted in a certain objective
Lower levels i.e 1-9 mean that a farmer has achieved less than he wanted
in an objective, the lower the level the less satisfied a farmer is in
achievement in that objective.
The level of achievement 0 means a farmer did not achieve what he wanted
in an objective

The mean milk home consumption was 1.75
l/farm/day, but ranged from 0-7 l/farm/day. The objectives which
were scored poorly (i.e 2-5) were increasing herd value (48%) and
paying school fees (51%) (Table 1).

The reason for the low scores
for increasing herd value was associated with most cows producing
bull calves (i.e. 60 male calves and 41 female calves were produced
during the study period), which were sold off the farm. Another
reason was failure of cows to conceive, which resulted in long
calving intervals (mean calving interval = 16.8 months and ranging
from 11 - 36.5 months). However, on the issue of school fees, the
farmers were expecting too much from the cow especially for the
farmers with several children in secondary schools. The income
from the cow could not meet this level of school fees (Table
3).

Table 3. Farmers’ net margin,
monetary requirements, cost of input requirements in the dairy
enterprise and school fees requirements in one year

Item

Mean

(000’ Ug shs)

Minimum

(000’ Ug shs)

Maximum

(000’ Ug shs)

Farmer numbers

Farmers’ net margin per cow
in 1year

636

39

1,320

52

Amount of money required by
farmers in order to achieve all their objectives in 1 year

1,245

400

2,700

16

Cost of input requirements
for the dairy enterprise per farm in 1 year

614

293

1,499

52

Primary school fees
estimates *

Day rural

Day urban

Boarding rural/urban

NA

NA

NA

25

100

750

50

150

900

NA

NA

NA

Secondary school fees
estimates *

Day rural/urban

Boarding rural/urban

NA

NA

150

600

300

900

NA

NA

University school fees
estimates *

University day urban

NA

900

1,600

NA

Number of farmers who say
they would have achieved their objectives if they had no problem

NA

NA

NA

45

NA = not applicable.

Information obtained
from schools

Farmers ranked paying children's school fees number one (Table
1). However in achievements it received a relatively low score
(51%) (Table 2). School fees in Masaka varied depending on the
class, type of school and its location (Table 3). In the Masaka
area, a farmer generally had two or more children going to school.
Therefore, the income from a cow could generally cover school fees
for one or two children. However, in other cases one cow could
only produce enough net margin to buy exercise books, uniforms and
pay for accommodation and food for those children at the
university. Daily home maintenance, buying cow requirements and
improving soil fertility objectives were ranked high in terms of
importance to a farmer and were also scored high in terms of
objective achievements. Increasing herd value was the lowest
ranked objective and least scored in terms of objective
achievements. This meant that although the farmer did not achieve
this objective, it was not high on his targets.

Masaka farmers had several objectives for
keeping a dairy enterprise some of which modified the objective of
net margin maximization. Adequate cash income, particularly for
paying school fees, soil fertility improvement and home milk
consumptions were the major motivating factors for farmers'
participation in the dairy enterprise.

In the current study, farmers achieved many of their objectives,
especially those in kind, such as improving soil fertility and
providing milk for home consumption (approximately 2 l/farm/day).
This was satisfactory according to the farmers' expectations.
However, the FAO recommendation for per capita consumption of fresh
whole milk is 0.5l/person/day. Thus although the farmers feel that
they have achieved their objective, they still have some way to go
in meeting the FAO values, as there are between 8 and 17 children
per household in urban and rural areas respectively in Masaka (LSRP
1999) that would need 4 to 8 litres of milk for home
consumption.

Paying school fees using income from the
dairy cows was only partially achieved. The reason for this was
that farmers expected more than a cow could produce. This study
revealed that a farmer needs about 1,245,000 Ug shs in a year in
order to achieve all their objectives (Table 3). However, on
average a farmer gets a net margin of 636,000 Ug shs /cow/year.
Therefore, keeping approximately two cows per farm could help
farmers to full fill their cash requirements.

Constraints to achieving farmers'
Objectives

Farmers were interviewed in individual semi structured
interviews and revealed some of the reasons that prevented them
from achieving their objectives (Table 4).

Table 4. Constraints
to achievements of farmers’ objectives

Item

Reason for not achieving farmers’ objectives

No of farmers

% of farmers

Affected activity

Affected objective

Milk transaction

·People
did not pay for milk

·Low
milk prices

·Lack
of transport to the market

·Fail
to sell all the milk at times

·Poor
milk market

20

12

3

8

6

37

26

7

17

13

-Less income

Getting money for:

-paying school fees

-buying cow requirements

-treating human beings

-daily home maintenance

Cattle inputs

·Expensive cattle inputs

·High price of maize bran

·Repeated
AI is expensive

·Expensive
mineral lick, nutrimix and dairy meal

·High
transport costs

·Buying
water

·Many
required cattle inputs

·Expensive
drugs

3

11

6

11

1

1

1

1

7

24

13

24

2

2

2

2

-Less money for buying
dairy meal and other house hold requirements, less milk

-Reduction in forage and
concentrate availability, low milk production, less income

Getting money for:

-paying school fees

-buying cow requirements

-treating human beings

-daily home maintenance

-Less home milk consumption

Feed

·Feed
scarcity

·Did
not give dairy meal

·Feed
theft

·Distant
e. grass

·Buying
forage

·Buying
forage instead of dairy meal

·Maize
bran was not available in drought

41

9

2

1

2

1

4

89

20

4

2

4

2

9

-Low milk production, less
income

-Low milk production, less
income

-Less feed , low milk
production, less income

-Less feed, low milk
production, less income

-Reduced income and forage,
less milk, less income

-Low milk production, less
income

-No maize bran was fed, low
milk production, less income

Getting money for:

-paying school fees

-buying cow requirements

-treating human beings

-daily home maintenance

Cow

·Treating
sick cow /cow fell sick

·Cow
was dry most of the year

·Low
milk production

·Cow
failed to conceive

·Long
lactation period

·Poor
breed

·Cow
did not take water

·Cow
did not come on heat

·Had
a heifer which was still pregnant

·Cow
suckled itself

·Cow
ate ropes, digestion a problem, cow not productive

·One
of the cows died

·Cow
had 2 blocked teats

·When
given dairy meal, cow did not increase milk production

·Cow
was in late lactation

·One
of the cows was not milking

5

3

17

8

7

8

2

2

1

1

1

2

1

1

3

1

11

7

37

17

15

17

4

4

2

2

2

4

2

2

7

2

-Less income for other
requirements

-Less milk production, less
money and milk consumption

-less milk, no calf +more
money spent on AI, less income

-Less milk production, less
milk for home consumption, less income

-Less milk production, less
income

-Less milk production, more
money spent on hormones, less income

-No milk, no money from
milk sales

-Less milk, less income and
milk for home consumption

-Low milk production + more
money spent on dairy meal, less income

-Low milk production, less
milk for home consumption and less income

Getting money for:

-paying school fees

-buying cow requirements

-treating human beings

-daily home maintenance

-Less milk for home
consumption

-Less increase in herd
value

Money

·Money
was scarce to buy dairy meal

17

37

No dairy meal bought, low
milk production, less income

Getting money for:

-paying school fees

-buying cow requirements

-treating human beings

-daily home maintenance

Pests and diseases

·Biting
flies were a problem

15

33

Cow uncomfortable, ate less
feed, low milk production, more money spent on pesticides, less income

Getting money for:

-paying school fees

-buying cow requirements

-treating human beings

-daily home maintenance

The major constraints
to achieving farmers' objectives include prolonged drought, which
brings about feed scarcity resulting in low milk yield. Other
constraints are poor milk market, which is characterised by
consumers not paying for the milk, low milk prices, failure to sell
all milk and lack of transport to the market. Scarcity of money to
buy expensive cattle inputs like dairy meal, maize bran, mineral
lick, nutrimix and repeated AI also constrains farmers' achievement
of their objectives. According to UNDP/FAO (1993), the use of
purchased animal feeds is constrained by high costs, lack of
standards and reliable information about feeds. This study
revealed the most constraining factors to the use of purchased
animal feed was its high cost and lack of cash to purchase it. In
addition, poor reproductive performance also constrained
profitability and hence objective achievement.

Conclusions and recommendations

Farmers' major objectives in smallholder
dairy production were to get adequate cash income to pay school
fees and home maintenance and self-sufficiency of the dairy
enterprise plus increasing soil fertility of their
farms.

Generally farmers achieved the
objectives of improving soil fertility, home maintenance and dairy
cow self-sufficiency. However they failed to achieve fully the
objectives of getting school fees and increase in herd
value.

The major constraints to farmers'
achievements of their objectives were prolonged drought which lead
to feed scarcity, poor milk market which was characterised by
consumers not paying for the milk, low milk prices, failure to sell
all the milk and lack of transport to the market.

Farmers, whose major objective in dairy
production is to get school fees need to keep more than one
cow.

References

Akatugba-Ogisi O D 1994 Multiple Objectives and small
farmer Production Behaviour in delta and EDO states Nigeria: An
Application of Goal Programming. PhD Thesis, University of
Reading, UK.